Integrated English Core

Integrated English Core

and IE Writing

Instructor’s name ______

Day - Period – Room ______

Student No. ______

Year-Class-Number ______

Student’s Name ______

Integrated English Program

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Aoyama Gakuin University

Contents

Integrated English Core
Program Organization ......
Journals ......
Discussions ......
Checklist for Discussions ......
Newspaper Discussions......
Further Guidance for IE III Discussions......
Reading and Analyzing Novels......
Literary Terms ......
Book Report Form......
Rating IE Book Reports ......
Presentations, Poster Sessions, and Projects...... / 3
5
6
9
11
14
15
14
20
23
42
Integrated English Writing
IE Writing and Academic Writing ......
IE Writing Objectives and Course Outlines ......
The Writing Process ......
Punctuation and Sentence Combining......
Peer Editing and Checklist ......
Marking Symbols......
Model Paragraphs ......
Paragraphs to Essays: Diagram......
Model Essay......
Creating Thesis Statements......
Transitions ......
Examples of Analysis Essays (IE II)......
Examples of Comparison-contrast Essays (IE II)......
References in the MLA Style......
Paraphrasing and Direct/ Indirect Quotations......
IE II & III Analysis and Classification Essays ......
IE III Persuasive Essays ...... / 48
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53
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57
60
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85
90
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100

IE CORE

IE CORE GUIDE

The IE Core and IE Writing and Academic sections were developed by Gregory Strong with contributions from Joseph Dias and members of past IE Committees including professors Erica Aso, Keiko Fukuda, Matsuo Kimura, Mariko Kotani, Peter Robinson, Hiroko Sano, Donald Smith, Minako Tani, Jennifer Whittle, Teruo Yokotani, Hiroshi Yoshiba, and Michiko Yoshida, with James Ellis, former IE Coordinator, Wayne Pounds, and IE Core and Writing teachers, including Tom Anderson, Mike Bettridge, Kazuyo Hoshizaki, and Joyce Taniguchi who provided activities, some student examples and graduate student, Mirei Hirota who typed them. Work on the program began in 1993 with the support of the English Department, particularly, chair persons Minoji Akimoto, Osamu Nemoto, Tsutomo Makino, and Kyosuke Tezuka.

Gregory Strong, Aoyama Gakuin University

PROGRAM ORGANIZATION

The focus of the IE (Integrated English) Program is on communicating with others. There are three sections in the IE Program: IE Core, IE Listening, IE Writing. In IE Core, you will be working on combined skills. In the IE Listening section, you will watch documentaries and popular films. The focus of the IE Writing section is on writing paragraphs and essays through brainstorming, peer tutoring, and revising. After completing the IE Program, you will be required to take an Academic Writing and an Academic Skills course, and you may be eligible for an IE Seminar in such areas as Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Cross-cultural Communication, Debate, Film and Culture, Popular Music, and Readers’ Theatre.

Core
journal writing
discussions
reading skills
extensive reading
book reports
IE LEVEL I
Themes:
Memories/ Pop Culture
Urban Life
Food and Health
Travel/ Differing Cultural Values / Writing
learning paragraph structure
paragraph types:
- descriptive
- classification
- comparison/ contrast
Listening
introduction to English dramas
& documentaries
- basic listening skills
- identifying idiomatic phrases
- vocabulary development

PLACEMENT AND GRADING

Initially, we test your language ability by a TOEFL test and place you in an IE I, IE II or IE III class matched to your ability. Our IE classes are small so that you will have every chance to take part in classroom activities and to interact with your teacher. The teachers of your IE Core, Writing, and Listening sections combine your scores into a total grade for IE at the end of the term. Attendance and class participation are important in each section. Your Writing and Listening sections each count for 30% and the IE Core for the remaining 40% of your total grade. To pass each level of IE, the overall, calculated grade for the three sections must be 60 or higher, and none of the grades in the respective sections can be less than 50.

Core
journal writing
media discussions
reading skills
extensive reading
book reports
presentation or poster session
IE LEVEL 2
Themes:
Changing Times /Technology
The Workplace
Geography
Biography / Writing
introduction to the essay
- comparison/ contrast
- analysis
Listening
further developing listening skills
- idiomatic phrases in dramas - vocabulary development through documentaries

IE CORE GUIDE

Core
journal writing
newspaper discussions
reading skills
book reports
presentations, survey or interview projects
IE LEVEL 3
Themes:
Relationships/ psychology
Cross-cultural values
The environment
The media / Writing
- quoting andparaphrasing
- using the MLA Style when citingreferences
- creating a bibliography
- classification and
persuasive essays
Listening
- emphasis on critical thinking and structure of heard texts
- students choose outside-of-
class listening sources
- student-created listening
material

I. JOURNAL WRITING

In your IE Core classes, you will keep a journal, have email exchanges, or contribute to a class blog. These types of writing help you to use English communicatively and improve your abilities to describe feelings, tell about experiences, and express ideas. Your teacher may assign you a “secret friend” or penpal with whom you will exchange journals. Using “pen names” can make your exchanges more exciting. Generally, students are instructed to write the equivalent of 3 double-spaced pages each week. Making regular entries in your journals/ blogs, or contributing actively to organized email exchanges, will be an important part of your IE Core grade.

IE CORE GUIDE

I.(a) TOPICS FOR YOUR JOURNAL

Write about as many kinds of things as you can instead of just writing about the things you do each week. Here are some suggestions:

1.Consider how your life might be if one special thing had not happened
2. Consider what you might do if you were the U.S. President or the Prime Minister
3. Consider how your life might be different if you were a celebrity
4.Consider your future, a career, or your family.
5. Consider how you would solve a social problem such as domestic violence,
juvenile crime, homelessness, unemployment
6. Compare university life to your life in high school, Japan with another
country, two types of music, two types of people.
7. Compare your life now with the future, Japan today with the past or with
Japan of tomorrow
8.Describe an important person from your childhood, an unusual person,
your favorite teacher, one of your classes, or a particular lecture.
9.Describe your hometown or some other place in Japan or the world.
Describe a sport you play, a musical instrument, a hobby, or your heroes
10.Describe a friend, family member, or a pet.
11. Describe a new invention that would solve a problem or make life better.
12.Express your opinions on social problems or news events.
13.Tell a ghost story, a legend, or historic incident.
14.Tell a story from your childhood, your dreams, or yours fears.
15.Tell the story of a modern or historical character.
16.Write about a recent trip.
17.Write about a book, film, or television program.
18.Write about a dream you recall.
19. Write a poem or a song.

II. DISCUSSIONS

You learn how to participate in a discussion in IE I. The same skills will be used in IE II and IE III, with more complex tasks, based on paraphrasing and summarizing longer news articles. How the discussions are conducted, and the subject of discussions, will differ in each of the three levels of IE. In each course, you will be asked to be a “discussion leader” about three times. The other times in class, you will be participating in discussions. If you are a group leader, you will need to use your partners’ names when speaking to them, make eye contact, and use gestures. In addition, you’ll learn phrases for asking your partners’ opinions, turn-taking while discussing topics, ways of agreeing and disagreeing, and how to ask for clarification and make additional points.

II.(a) INTERRUPTING, ASKING FOR CLARIFICATION

There are many ways to practice these skills. One is a game where you interrupt and ask for clarification:

1. The teacher or a student volunteer starts talking on any subject.

2. Anyone in the class can interrupt and disagree with the speaker or ask for clarification if they use the right expressions.

3. The speaker quickly answers the person who interrupted or provides clarification and

resumes talking about the subject.

4. Everyone else tries to interrupt or ask for clarification as often as possible and in as many ways to sidetrack

the speaker.

II.(b) GIVING A REASON

Another way is to practice adding reasons:

1. Write down the names of different jobs on pieces of paper. Then fold the papersso that what’s written on them can’t be seen.

2. A group member draws a paper and imagines that it describes the job of the student sitting on the right. (S)he expresses why the job is a suitable one for that person. For example, “I think you would be a great singer because…”

3. The first group member passes the paper to the left and that person adds a differentreason: “Furthermore...”

4. When the paper has gone all the way around, a new group member draws a second paper and the game continues.

IE CORE GUIDE

ASKING OPINIONS / AGREEING / DISAGREEING
- What do you think?
- What’s your opinion?
- What’s your idea?
- What do you have to say?
- How do you feel about it?
- Could you tell me your opinion?
- I’d like to ask... ?
- I’d like to know... ?
- I’m interested in... ? / - I agree.
- I have the same opinion.
- I feel the same way.
- Yes, that’s what I think.
- Likewise (for me).
- Certainly, that’s true.
- Me too. / - I disagree.
- I can’t believe that.
- I have a different opinion.
- I have another idea.
- I feel differently.
- I don’t think so.
- I can’t agree.

II.(c) ROUND ROBIN

In this exercise, an assertion goes around the circle or small group. Students either agree or disagree and offer a reason. The assertions can be outrageous ones.

I. The world is really flat.

II. Santa Claus is a real person.

III. There is a rabbit making mochi on the moon.

IV. The number four is unlucky.

INTERRUPTING / CLARIFICATION / GIVING REASONS
Excuse me for interrupting, but...
May I say something...
Pardon me, but…
Sorry, but...
Wait a minute! / Just a moment!
I might add that…
I’d like to say something. / Would you mind repeating that?
I didn’t catch the last part.
Sorry, I don’t follow you.
What was that?
I didn’t get that. / The main reason is...
Because...
Seeing as how...
(This is)the reason why...
That’s why...
Furthermore...
And another thing...

II.(d) CHECKLIST FOR IE I, II, III DISCUSSIONS

Your checklist for student discussions has 3 parts: explaining, questioning, and communicating non-verbally. You will watch a DVD describing the parts of a discussion and of students leading discussions. Observe their discussion skills and discuss your observations with your teacher and classmates. This task will help you to learn what to do when you become a discussion leader.

Items on the Checklist

A. Explaining

a)describes the content thoroughly (without excessive reading from notes)

b)summarizes partners’ comments after each question

B. Questioning

c)asks partners a variety of questions

d) uses follow-up questions when necessary

C. Communicating Non-verbally

e)makes frequent eye contact with partners

f)uses gestures frequently (e.g., pointing to a photograph or headline)

Explaining / Questioning / Communicating Non-verbally
a) describing / c) asking questions / e) making eye contact
b) summarizing / d) using follow-up
questions / f) using gestures

Teacher’s Role

As part of teaching the role of discussion leader, the teacher will:

1)provide students with an overview of the checklist and describe the qualities of a “successful” discussion,

2)use the checklist to evaluate the students’ efforts on the Discussion DVD and discuss it with the class afterwards,

3)videotape discussion groups periodically and show the tapes to students for class discussion and peer/self-evaluation.

IE CORE GUIDE

ii. The Teacher as Discussion Facilitator/ Cheerleader

In addition to pre-teaching the use of questions and strategies for follow-up questioning, your teacher will circulate among the groups and encourage them. During discussions, the teacher may:

1)model appropriate language,

2)recast phrases verbally when a student errs in pronunciation or in grammar [not excessively, as this can be disruptive],

3)encourage students to make thoughtful contributions to the discussion,

4)allow for 3 or 4 repetitions, in a different group each time, so that discussion leaders can describe their content more than once, reading less from their notes with each repetition

5) ask you to “shadow” your discussion leader which means paraphrasing what

he or she has just said.

IE CORE GUIDE

II. (e) NEWSPAPER DISCUSSION

In IE III, you are supposed to summarize an English newspaper article for your discussion. With your summary, you should also hand in a copy of the article. You must summarize it, not copy it. This important skill will be used later in Academic Writing. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Find articles from online news sources like CNN ( and the BBC

( or from printed newspapers and magazines which you’ll find in the library, such as The Japan Times or The Daily Yomiuri. You can also find some of the articles from those newspapers, and others, online at…

2. Print out the article, or photocopy it, and staple it to your summary.

3. Note the source of information as completely as possible (writer, title of the article, name

of the newspaper or magazine, and date) according to MLA Style.

e.g., Wright, Richard. “Portents for Future Learning.” Time 21 Sept 1981: 65.

4. In point form, note the following key information:

Who?What?Where? When?Why?How?

5. Prepare a summary of the article by answering the W/H questions.

6. Write down your opinion (“I thought that...” or “I felt that...”).

IE CORE GUIDE

7. Finally, you should prepare three questions for your group discussion.

Example 1: Yuka Yamazaki, IE III Core

[Errors of grammar and word choice have not been corrected.]

II.(f) RATING SCALE FOR IE III DISCUSSIONS

Although the checklist in Section II.(d) will be used at all three levels, at each level of the IE Program, you will be expected to conduct better discussions, to summarize your partners’ comments more accurately, to better use follow-up questions, and to direct the group more effectively, and to use reasons and examples to back up arguments, and to show evidence of original and critical thinking. The following Teacher Rating Scalewill rate some of these aspects.

Explaining / Questioning / Non-verbally Communicating
4 / a) Communicated the ideas in
the article without reading
b) Explained vocabulary when
necessary, using only English
c) Spoke clearly and loudly
enough to be easily understood / 4 / a) Summarized your partners’
comments after each question
b) Used follow-up questions and
rephrased questions as needed
c) Directed the group by using
names, to get others to speak / 4 / a) Frequent eye contact
b) Appropriate and helpful
gestures
c) Good posture and sensitivity to
others’ nonverbal
communication
3 / Any combination of 2 descriptors* / 3 / Any combination of 2 descriptors* / 3 / Any combination of 2 descriptors*
2 / Any 1 descriptor* / 2 / Any 1 descriptor* / 2 / Any 1 descriptor*
1 / Read the article aloud / 1 / Read the questions / 1 / No eye contact or gestures

III. READING 2 NOVELS

You will be reading two novels over the term in order to develop your reading skills and your ability to analyze literature. Afterward, you will write a detailed report, discuss it with a small group, or make a presentation to the class about it. The Sagamihara library has over 3,500 novels in English. Many of them are graded according to the range of vocabulary used in them and the complexity of sentence structure. Many of the graded readers are marked with coloured dots that correspond to their level of difficulty.

Students can quickly and conveniently assess their current vocabulary level at...

You should do so before selecting a novel to ensure that it will be one you can read without too much frustration. One of the main purposes of the novel-reading requirement is to increase your enjoyment of reading. If you select a novel that’s written below your ability level, you may be bored; if it is above your current level of vocabulary and reading ability, you will be frustrated and need to refer to a dictionary too often. Therefore, it is important to choose a novel that’s just right for you. Your teacher will help you.

III.(a) ANALYZING BOOKS

To analyze books, we will use 8 literary terms: setting, point of view, conflict, climax, plot, symbol, irony, and theme. Irony, which is one of the more difficult terms, is known as「アイロニー」or 「反語」in Japanese while「皮肉」, a related concept,means sarcasm.

IE CORE GUIDE

III.(b) LITERARY TERMS

1. Setting:the time and location of a story or novel
2. Point of a story is told from one (or more) point(s) of view:
View:a) first person; sympathetic but, possibly, unreliable
b) third person; a factual account like that of a newspaper, or
limited to a single character’s mind with little insight
into other characters
c) omniscient; insight into the minds and emotions of
many characters
3. Conflict: a character is in conflict with himself/ herself or someone else:
a) man/ woman versus man/ woman
b) man/ woman versus himself/ herself
c) man/ woman versus his/ her environment
forces in a story are in opposition:
a) good versus evil
b) nature versus that which is man-made
c) hate versus the power of love
4. Climax:the point in a conflict when one side or the other wins a struggle
5. Symbol: an object which stands for something else –usually intangible:
(e.g., a cross for Christianity or sacrifice; a grave for death;
a wedding ring for marriage, partnership, or fidelity)
6. Irony:an event turns out to be very different than expected
7. Theme:the main idea; a moral or a lesson
8. Plot: a summary of the main events in a story, often in outline form

IE CORE GUIDE

III.(c) Exercise: Point of View

Identify the points of view in the following vignettes:

1
I could hardly believe it! Ice lay on the road ahead of my car. I stepped on the brake to avoid hitting it. But it was too late. My car drove over the ice and skidded off the road. My life passed before me. What a waste! To end it all so badly. There was a crash and then everything went black.
2
The man driving the white Toyota sedan hit the ice before he could even see it. The car went into a skid that the man couldn't control. To his horror, his vehicle left the road and crashed into a fence. It lay there with its engine smoking. A woman who had been walking by screamed. Fearfully, she ran to the car and opened the door. “Are you okay?”
3
The white Toyota sedan hit the ice on the road and spun out of control. It skidded off the road and hit a fence. It stopped there. The engine was smoking. There was no sign of life.

III.(d) Exercise: Find the Conflict